Isn't that the story of virtually every US show in history? Everything seems to be over long and over run. There's some great stuff but the whole concept of seasons does nothing for the quality and consistency of shows.

Edit: typo.

Last edited by TMDaines on Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Executive producer Greg Daniels will return as showrunner for the final year -- taking over from Paul Lieberstein, who is prepping a potential spinoff. Daniels ran the show, still NBC's highest-rated scripted series, for the first five seasons.

"As we head into the home stretch, we have a lot of exciting things I've been wanting to do since season two," Daniel told reporters. "The end should be pretty cool."

Daniels is one of the most underrated comedy writers ever - this'll be worth checking out even if you left the show seasons ago (as I did after Season 5).

mfunk9786 wrote: - this'll be worth checking out even if you left the show seasons ago...

So, has anyone been watching the show this season? It certainly hasn't returned to the same type of quality it delivered in the first few seasons (2-4?), but it's a noticeable improvement over the past few seasons. They wisely decided to make their characters resemble normal human-beings again (though there are still a few rough patches), including a necessary tweak to Dwight's character where they've dialed him back on the psychopath-scale to ensure he's no longer as overly vindictive as he was previously. Dwight now functions more out of a desperation to maintain the routine he's comfortable with and he lets his guard down often enough to allow the audience to understand that he actually appreciates his fellow co-workers. Meanwhile, Jim & Pam have actually provided some compelling story-lines this season, including a genuine dilemma within their marriage that actually led to a "breaking-the-4th-wall" moment on last week's episode that might have been the most dramatic moment on the show since Michael Scott's departure. In conclusion, Daniels certainly knows what he's doing.

TMDaines wrote:Isn't that the story of virtually every US show in history? Everything seems to be over long and over run. There's some great stuff but the whole concept of seasons does nothing for the quality and consistency of shows.

I would say SEINFELD ended while still being good.

For me the only thing surprising about THE OFFICE ending is that it lasted this long without Steve.
This really was Steve's show and once he left the show became embarrasing.

I thought that 4th wall breaking may have been the worst moment of the series and I'd actually rank this season as one of the worst. My biggest problem has been the normalizing of Erin, where suddenly all her quirks have been removed as the writers try to throw in yet another love triangle between her, Andy, and some guy whose sole existence up until now has been the new guy no one pays attention to. The previous seasons had their flaws, but Erin was consistently hilarious whereas now she's been turned into another Pam.

Murdoch wrote:I thought that 4th wall breaking may have been the worst moment of the series and I'd actually rank this season as one of the worst. My biggest problem has been the normalizing of Erin, where suddenly all her quirks have been removed as the writers try to throw in yet another love triangle between her, Andy, and some guy whose sole existence up until now has been the new guy no one pays attention to. The previous seasons had their flaws, but Erin was consistently hilarious whereas now she's been turned into another Pam.

I like Ellie Kemper, and enjoyed Erin when she was introduced, but her character started to wear pretty thin for me last season, mostly due to the fact she was being written as naive to the point of almost barely functioning as a human being. I agree she's sort of gotten the short-end of the plots/scenes this season, but I'm kind of indifferent to those circumstances.

As for the 4th-wall breaking, what I appreciated about it was that they finally acknowledged the fact that this documentary crew, after almost a decade of filming these people, has not just been sitting back as passive observers, but have actually become involved in their personal lives. Within less than a minute, they were able to convey just how emotionally invested these people are with one another. In the era of all these mockumentary-style sit-coms, which often make little-to-no sense when you think about the content of some of the scenes, it was actually a relief to have Daniels & Co. acknowledge the artifice of the concept and the eventual bond between observer and subject matter that seems inevitable within the context/length of the show. Now, honestly, I'm not that confident that this will result in good material for the show going forward, considering having the documentary filmmakers become characters on the show could get really tired given the number of episodes that remain this season. I also could be completely out in left field on this one, but that's not surprising since I'm one of the few that love the California episodes of Mad Men.

I'd be interested in learning who's actually funding a ten-year documentary on these paper company denizens. Given that we're viewing edited material (complete with interview segments), one must assume THE OFFICE is an extremely popular "reality" show. The problem there is that all of the characters would have become famous a few seasons back and the show would have been forced to document that celebrity. Bringing the documentary crew into it is a fun "fourth-wall breaking" gag, but nothing that can be sustained. The fact that they chose to play last week's "fourth-wall breaking" moment for pathos draws way too much attention to the conceit.

Overall, I am enjoying this season more than the last couple, but the continued crazy, unmotivated behavior by most of the characters has dampened the fun significantly.

I had assumed it was either an ongoing production associated to a documentary film or we were watching episodes of the reality TV show many years removed from when all the footage had been filmed. Gervais also did break the 4th-wall in the very last scene of the original, so I always assumed we were watching the polished production after some time had passed since collecting the footage.

Andre Jurieu wrote:I like Ellie Kemper, and enjoyed Erin when she was introduced, but her character started to wear pretty thin for me last season, mostly due to the fact she was being written as naive to the point of almost barely functioning as a human being. I agree she's sort of gotten the short-end of the plots/scenes this season, but I'm kind of indifferent to those circumstances.

This is where I part ways with most fans who hold up the early seasons as the pinnacle of the show. I found Erin in the 7th and 8th seasons to be the funniest character in the series and the only reason I returned to the show. Her empty-headedness is nothing to me when compared with Michael's lack of self awareness which frustrated me to no end.

Roger Ryan wrote:I'd be interested in learning who's actually funding a ten-year documentary on these paper company denizens. Given that we're viewing edited material (complete with interview segments), one must assume THE OFFICE is an extremely popular "reality" show. The problem there is that all of the characters would have become famous a few seasons back and the show would have been forced to document that celebrity. Bringing the documentary crew into it is a fun "fourth-wall breaking" gag, but nothing that can be sustained. The fact that they chose to play last week's "fourth-wall breaking" moment for pathos draws way too much attention to the conceit.

Sorry in advance for the following vagueness, but I read something somewhere where someone (either an actor or a writer) floated their theory that the "Documentary" was an ongoing series of class projects by a local C.C. or J.C. RTVB program. Each year a new group of students would come in and flim at Dunder-Mifflin, learning how to shoot and then edit that footage for class, with no intentions of genuine broadcast. This all would explain a lot, except the show rarely comes off as student-inept, and also how they've managed to bring the crew along to points as far from Scranton as Florida. I was in a similar program where we did good to merely get out of the city much less the county or out of state.

swo17 wrote:Can someone briefly summarize what happened for the benefit of those no longer watching the show?

As you know, the show is shot in a documentary style, with the conceit being that there is an actual crew filming everything the audience sees. However, we have never seen or heard this crew, or know why they're there. In the last episode, the sound man (?) tells the rest of the crew to stop filming, and then steps in front of the camera to console Pam after her argument with Jim. Supposedly, this sound guy is played by a known actor (I didn't recognize him) which is leading people to believe he'll be recurring until the finale.

swo17 wrote:Can someone briefly summarize what happened for the benefit of those no longer watching the show?

SpoilerShow

After attending Roy's wedding and witnessing the unexpected success of Pam's ex-fiance after he decided to rebuild his life, Jim decides he's ready to pursue another career avenue within the sports industry, which he's always perceived as sort of a dream. With that in mind he decides to commit much of his slim savings into a venture with some friends and makes a request to the management at Dunder Mifflin that he start a part-time schedule in order to fully pursue his new start-up. This schedule requires him to spend half the week in Philadelphia with the rest of the start-up management staff, which means he has to leave Pam behind in Scanton. The part that makes you scratch your head is that Jim wants to surprise Pam with this idea and it catches her off guard, as she's still tied to her Scranton-life and doesn't realistically have the same impressive secondary career-path that she can also pursue. What Pam does want is to pursue her interest in art and design, but she has more small-scale ambitions. The stress of living apart, raising young children, and being at two very different stages in life ultimately starts to create small cracks in their marriage. It culminated in this past week's episode, where Pam and Jim argued on the phone over what started out as a minor problem, with Pam eventually breaking-down in tears, with only a crew member to console her, at which point he respects her wishes and asks that film crew stop filming.

willoneill wrote:...Supposedly, this sound guy is played by a known actor (I didn't recognize him) which is leading people to believe he'll be recurring until the finale.

The sound guy was played by Chris Diamantopoulos who has appeared on numerous sitcoms and commercials and played the role of "Moe" in the Farrelly's recent effort THE THREE STOOGES.

Instead of playing the appearance of the sound guy as a gag, it was treated as a dramatic moment. All of the other employees have left the office for the day and Pam is left alone. After her phone argument with Jim, she reaches out to the documentary crew for sympathy. This action forces the viewer to accept the "documentary" conceit as meaningful in a way that opens up a whole can of worms as far as dramatic logic is concerned.

Yes, but I do agree with Murdoch about the potential for opening up another love-triangle scenario being a bad idea. If that's what was being foreshadowed, I have serious misgivings about the reveal of the documentary crew.

Yes, and now I am acutely aware that there must be at least three separate documentary crews following these people in order to provide coverage of Dunder-Mifflin, Athelead (plus Jim's apartment) and the Senator's home, all of which featured events occurring simultaneously.

This last season is whole mess of bad decisions, although I am somewhat interested (enough to passively keep the show on as background noise anyway) by the writers' decision to turn Andy into the most hated character on the show.

The best we can hope for is Gervais waking up in bed Newhart-style to end the show.

Murdoch wrote:The best we can hope for is Gervais waking up in bed Newhart-style to end the show.

It would be pretty awesome if he falls back asleep and starts dreaming of himself in a new music video. Honestly, I would settle for a St. Elsewhere style ending at this point, maybe with Tim or Dawn starring at the snow-globe on a desk.